Dylan Holloway's sacrifice for the Oilers will end up benefiting him

It's been an extremely newsworthy season for Dylan Holloway thus far, albeit not all of his headlines have been positive. Now, as confirmed officially on social media, the Oilers, have loaned him to the Condors (along with Sam Gagner), which we'll get more into shortly.

Coming off a promising rookie season, Holloway was looking forward to taking the next step in his development. Instead, he suffered a wrist injury which forced him to leave the season opener -- a game in which he was playing well -- and the seeds were sown for what was to follow.

The 22-year-old would struggle overall in his first 14 games for the Oilers this season, highlighted by just one goal and a -3 plus/minus rating, as he averaged 11:23 of ice time. (In fairness though, most of the team were struggling early on.) Then on Nov. 15 he was placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve, due to a knee injury which he suffered after crashing hard into the boards, versus the Islanders.

Better since coming back

Holloway returned from his injury in mid-January and had a successful spell with the Condors, scoring four points in four games before being recalled to the Oilers. Since then he has been decent, although he's still only produced four points and a -3 rating in 32 total games, and actually seen his average ice time for the season dip down to 11:03.

Returning to the Calgary native's loan to Bakersfield, it made sense for a couple of reasons. More specifically, to help facilitate a trade and due to him being waiver exempt.

However, as much as Holloway would have liked to remain in Edmonton, this move still has the chance to provide a positive ending to the season for him. As per the Edmonton Journal's David Staples, consider some comments from Bob Stauffer of 630 CHED.

More positives to come

Stauffer believes the plan is for the 2020 14th overall draft pick to log some big minutes with the Condors, to help prepare him for the playoffs, assuming the Oilers qualify of course. (In a similar vein, he is also now eligible for the AHL playoffs.) At that point he can also be recalled when his salary no longer impacts the cap this season.

Certainly this makes a lot of chance, and at least it would prove some solace for Holloway to counteract any disappointing to being sent to Bakersfield. The extra minutes will be important to also build up his stamina, given his aforementioned lack of average ice time in 2023-24 for the Oilers.

Long term, the expectation/hope is that Holloway will develop into a regular in the top six, will the potential to be an excellent two-way player. Short term, he will be looking foward to returning to the Oilers and helping with the quest to finally recapture the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1990.

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